MEDIUM PROJECT FUNDING
2020/2021 Impact Overview
In 2020/2021, CRE designed a full funding program, including a cornerstone funding stream: Medium Project Funding. Grants of up to $25,000 were mobilized to youth-led project that aimed to increase community wellness.
CRE did two application intakes in Summer 2020 and Winter 2021 Across the two intakes, we received 60 proposals, representing a need of over $1,500,000 in funding. 73% of applications were from unincorporated groups (including grassroots collectives, Youth Councils, small organizations, and community groups). Because these groups are not registered/incorporated, they face large barriers to access funding, particularly from mainstream funding streams.
The Medium Project Funding Stream provided $575,000 in funding to 25 groups in 8 Provinces and Territories Who are grantees primarily reaching?
Grantees predominantly served either First Nations youth specifically, or First Nations, Inuit and Metis youth
The majority of funded groups were in Ontario and Alberta.
54% of grantees are supporting youth in rural locations
The 25 funded groups will collectively reach over 6,000 youth.
100% of grantees were entirely youth-led projects.
54% of grantees were newly formed youth groups and collectives
73% of grantees were unincorporated youth groups and collectives
Alberta
GRANTEES MEDIUM PROJECT FUNDING
EGOLES ANONYMOUS
Egoles Anonymous will run an arts-based programming aimed at increasing wellness for youth (in particular those who have risk factors around violence, gang involvement, trauma and addictions). Youth participants will build on their strengths and interests including art, writing, drumming, graphic design, street art (a.k.a., graffiti), technical support, videography, dancing, choreography, merchandising, audio production and promoting. They will use exisiting partnerships to meet basic, and will build a portable studio to better reach youth in the community.
NAKODA AV CLUB
The Nakoda AV Club will provide learning tools around language and culture. They will provide Ti Mani Daguskan (welcome home baby) packages to 100 new parents, and packaged will contain language learning resources, information on traditional parenting practices and culture and other tools to help young people conenct to their community. They hope that this will fill the significant gap in their community around traditional resources, and create better language nests for knowledge building.
JANVIER SEKWEHA YOUTH CENTRE
Youth cohorts will be developed to provide support to the entire community. They will work collaboratively to design an activity plan for Elders, families and land-users around programming and services and belonging. They will distribute COVID-19 wellness packages, run recreation events, host cultural programming and bring the entire community together for relationship-building events
POWWOW TIMES
Youth will participate in a weekly physical activity program where they will do trail biking along with Elders and Knowledge Keepers. Along with being physically active and on the land, youth will learn teachings around medicines, caring for the land, survival techniques, wellness (particularly around diabetes), language and team building.
URBAN SOCIETY FOR ABORIGINAL YOUTH (USAY)
Three youth leaders will work with knowledge keepers to identify, plan and implement a spring culture camp/spring ceremonies. The primary focus of this project is allowing these youth leaders to learn about their culture and to develop their planning/program implementation skills. 10 urban youth will participate in spring ceremonies.
British Columbia
JEHJEHMEDIA
Jehjeh Media wants to mentor and support youth through the creation of health and wellness videos and events. They intend to root this work in teaching language that is easy for youth to integrate into their daily lives. The project will release daily pre-recorded videos and host 2 online events for women in their community and surrounding communities to attend.
SKIDEGATE YOUTH CENTRE
This project will center on day trips for 64 Haida youth to visit protected ancestral village sites. On this excursion, Haida teens aged 15-19 will dive deeper into the Haida language, Haida myths and stories, cultural values, and grounding ceremonies. These activities will equip youth with valuable tools for healing themselves and their communities, and will help them develop strong young spiritual leaders. Youth will also engage in food security by becoming more familiar with traditional food skills on the day trip, harvesting various types of ocean or forest food depending on the season.
TAKLA CHIL'KEH GROUP
Youth will participate in a 7 month program that will strengthen their connections with Elders. Yout will be involved in a "Meals on Wheels" program where they will cook and deliver food to Elders in their communities. When it is COVID safe to do so, they will begin visiting and sharing meals with Elders. They will also add in an aspect of physical health to the program by bringing in a trainer to work with youth
LII MICHIF OTIPEMISIWAK F&C SERVICES
The Kikekyelc Youth Council ("KYC") formed in December, 2020, to give a greater voice to residents of the Kikekyelc (A Place of Belonging) housing project, which supports Indigenous youth who have aged out of the foster care system or who are currently in foster care. The KYC inform staff and liaise with staff about tenant issues and ways that the program can best benefit its residents. This is a groundbreaking project in Canada as no other comparable program exists. The KYC will involve the Elders in residence as they create programs that are culturally based and address issues of wellness.
INDIGENOUS DESIGN AND PLANNING STUDENT ASSOCIATION
IDPSA will publish a book (digital and physical copies) that shows the work of Indigenous designers and design students. The intention of this publication is to create a work of public record that will center Indigenous voices and inspire Indigenous artists to pursue architecture, art and design fields.
WATERWAYS CANADA
Waterways Canada will run day-long and multi-day land-based camps centered around canoeing and outdoor recreation for youth. This program is a part of a two year capacity building program to enable communities to run their own land-based camps (year 1 was 2020 and involved supporting community members to get their canoe certification)
Newfoundland and Labrador
TEWA’LUTEWEI // DANDELION
The Dandelion Project will support youth coordinators to pilot a workshop series for Indigenous youth dancers. As a team of youth coordinators, professional Indigenous dancers, they intend to revitalize sustainable dance through peer mentorship and training. Youth attending this pilot will have the opportunity to pass down their knowledge of dance in their communities.
KIKMANAQ YOUTH COUNCIL
KIRA Youth Council members will go out on the land to to strategic planning and visioning for their group. They will focus on reconnecting with the land, participating in mentorship, planning activities and building connections to help them provide more leadership to community programming.
Northwest Territories
BUILDING NORTHERN FUTURES
Building Northern Futures will use the funding to increase the longevity, sustainability and impact of their organization. They will increase their community and online presence through stronger marketing, create a website for the organization, host a strategic planning retreat, and be able to offer our staff/board members professional development opportunities. BNF will also host two community engagement sessions, hearing directly from the public on ways that they can best support our community.
WESTERN ARCTIC YOUTH COLLECTIVE
WAYC will increase the capacity of their own organization and 5 other youth-led organizations through the provision of training, capacity building programming, governance and leadership development initiatives and strategic planning sessions. As part of this project, they will assess gaps in the area through community consultations, strategy sessions with other youth groups and the collection of data directly from youth.
NIPATURUQ
Nipaturuq is a youth-led magazine for Inuvialuit youth. Issues are centered around interviewing Elders, youth and knowledge keepers in order to profile stories. They will use funds to release 4 more magazine issues throughout the year.
Ontario MAAWI BMOSEDAA
Endaayaan Awejaa exists to alleviate the financial burden of Indigenous youth within the community by continuing to provide care packages & medicine bundles, clothing, non-perishable food items, and other essential needs that can be financially strenuous on small living allowances. Our project, Maawi BmosedaaWalking in Unity Together, will provide services to our community by increasing the number of essential-needs care packages that we are able to distribute and also create an inperson/online environment for youth to join creative art workshops.
REVITALIZING OUR SUSTENANCE
Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project (ROSP) is a youth-led and focused program to help educate, sustain, reclaim, and revitalize Haudenosaunee (Hodinosoh:ni:) food sustainability and practices in the community of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. The project will also provide Urban Indigenous youth and non Indigenous youth the opportunity to help maintain the community garden and learn about Indigenous, Onkwehonwe, issues and identity regarding food sustainability. Involving nonIndigenous youth into ROSP will help Onkwehonwe youth make connections, new relationships, and understandings outside the Six Nations community.
WALPOLE ISLAND LAND TRUST
BEK is a program designed for and by the youth of Walpole Island First Nation to provide training and hands-on activities to develop skills related to careers in environmental stewardship. With this grant, BEK will design and deliver workshops connecting traditional culture and environmental stewardship actions. In doing so, the program will expose youth to career and educational opportunities in the environmental and natural resource fields. The program will connect youth with local knowledge holders, resource users, and community elders to share environmental perspectives and transfer traditional knowledge and values that have maintained the ecosystems and biodiversity of Bkejwanong.
WAHKOHTOWIN DEVELOPMENT
Youth will work with Elders on a seasonal resource mapping project. Youth will collect data, analyse it and then turn it into a map, which they can share with their respective communities and the Elders who helped them create it. This includes medicine monitoring surveys, a canoe material monitoring surveys, tracking and trapping animal surveys, species ID surveys and more to come. We want the youth to learn how to effectively use technology to affect positive changes in their communities.
MAAMWI NOOJMADAA "LET'S HEAL TOGETHER"
The Maamwi noojmadaa “Let’s Heal Together” Project will provide 200 Wellness Care Packages to peoples living in the 6 Anishinaabek Reserves located on Manitoulin Island, and will host a virtual "Gathering of Reserves" event with discussions about community wellness. Co-leaders will host engaging discussions and provide informational resources for community members about healing and how we can collectively take-action. We believe it’s vital to teach Indigenous communities the importance of learning and caring for the emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental aspects of yourself.
WHITE OWL NATIVE ANCESTRY ASSOCIATION
The White Owl Garden Internship Project is an immersive 24week Land-based learning program to strengthen Landbased relationships for urban Indigenous youth and nonIndigenous allies. The project aims to build relationships to the Land, community and to self while working towards food security, intergenerational knowledge sharing and youth wellbeing. The described project expands on the work we already conduct over the growing season. Through growing food and relationships with human and more-than-human entities, we hope to provide youth with the knowledge necessary to help create and maintain their own Indigenous food systems that stem from ancestral food ways.
Quebec
THE SOUTHERN QUEBEC INUIT ASSOCIATION'S
YOUTH COUNCIL
The Southern Quebec Inuit Youth Council (SQIYC) will use this funding to continue training, engaging, and recruiting Inuit youth as a follow up to a series of community consultation sessions they held. SQIYC has a mandate to oversee the youth programming offered by the Southern Quebec Inuit Association. For this project, they would run youth and community wellness programming, arts and cultural programming and LGBTQ2S+ spaces that are designed and driven by Inuit youth. Such initiatives and community programming create the space for youth to nurture their sense of community and belonging, while also allowing them to stay informed and connected with other youth - all of which would positively impact their mental health during the pandemic.
Saskatchewan
CHOKECHERRY STUDIOS
Youth will participate in a 12 part virtual speaker series centering around connecting youth with community leaders, artists, academics and knowledge keepers. The 12 part series will center on storytelling, training, leadership training, empowerment/advocacy and wellness. Youth will additionally participate in 4 artbased workshops, 4 teaching circles and 4 community mobilization events.
FUTURE ARTISTIC MINDS
FAM will run an afterschool program focused on providing a safe space for youth to engage in artsbased activities (including graphic design, video editing, animation, etc). This project will hire two facilitators who will support studio time, the production of a youth zine and the release of youth music.